DILAC hosted a talk via video from Dr. Derek Ham, designer of “I Am A Man,” a VR experience set to the events leading to the assassination of MLK Jr 50 years ago. Any faculty members involved in DILAC project are welcome to join. If you’re not but still want to participate, please contact us.

“I Am A Man” VR Experience is an interactive virtual reality experience set to the historic events of the African- American Civil Rights Movement. Users will witness the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Worker’s Strike and the events leading to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. using the Oculus Rift VR headset. The VR project was created by Derek Ham and won an award for funding through the Oculus Launch Pad program.

Derek Ham, PhD is an independent VR developer who also teaches as an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at North Carolina State’s College of Design. He completed his doctoral work in Design Computation from MIT, holds a Master’s in Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Hampton University.